Helpful
by xBleedingBlackRosex
Summary: Prompt: "Blaine loves how helpful Kurt is." Why I Love You series: What Blaine and Kurt love about one another.


**For the ****_Why I Love You_**** prompt by anon: ****_Blaine loves how helpful Kurt is._**

**Just something I thought up. :) I wrote a longer version of this years ago, and when I was going back through my older fics and editing them I realized that this one would fit perfectly for this prompt! :D Probably not what the reviewer had in mind, but I think it still works.**

…

"Kurt, you can't go out there!" Blaine insisted.

"I have to!" he argued. "How'm I supposed to get _home_ without going outside?"

"Oh come on, be reasonable!" the older of the two rationalized. "The snow's three feet deep out there, easily! There's no way you'll be able to drive all the way home in that...It's turning into a blizzard!"

"But-!" Kurt tried to assure him that he would be fine. But then he chanced a glance out the window of the Warbler Hall. The courtyard was unrecognizable. The pathways, the grass, even the fountain, it was all buried under layers upon layers of snow and ice. He knew the snowplows would all be hard at work, but Blaine had a point. It was two hours back to Lima, and in this weather it was a given that not all streets would be possible to drive on.

He sighed. "Fine, I'll call Dad...But, what, am I just supposed to sleep on the common room floor?"

Blaine's eyebrows drew together, confused by the mere thought. "Well, you'll sleep in my room, of course!"

Kurt's eyes widened. _Sleep? In Blaine's dorm room?_ He stopped his thoughts right there before they got out of hand. "Are- Are you sure that'd be alright?"

Blaine actually laughed at that. "Don't worry about it! It's decided. I'd just feel much better if you weren't driving tonight..."

"Alright...Thanks. A lot." He smiled and pulled out his phone, hitting his home number's speed dial. His father picked up on the fourth ring. "Dad? Hi, it's Kurt..."

"Kurt! Hey...Is something wrong?"

"Well, it's snowing really hard out right now..." He stared out the window at the white gales and diagonal sheets of snow pounding down into the already-landed blankets of cold. "I don't think it would be wise to try and drive home. Would it be okay if I stayed here for the night? Blaine says I can sleep in his room."

"Blaine's room?" Kurt could hear the suspicion in his father's tone and couldn't help but get a little defensive.

"Don't worry, nothing inappropriate will happen," he sighed. "We'll just eat dinner, do homework, and go to sleep. End of story." He could have sworn he heard Blaine snicker behind him and sincerely hoped Burt did not catch it.

"Well..." His father hesitated, but they both knew there was not much he could do. What kind of dad would he be if he tried to force Kurt to drive home in this storm? So, in the end, he gave his consent and made him promise to call if anything happened (_like what?_, Kurt considered asking). He closed his phone and turned to Blaine.

"He says I can stay," he informed him.

"Great!" Blaine beamed. "After practice we can...how did you put it? 'Eat dinner, do homework, and go to sleep. End of story.'" They both laughed as Kurt shoved him square in the chest, making him collapse onto the couch. Kurt joined him. The room quickly filled with their fellow Warblers, and five minutes later Wes's gavel announced the beginning of practice.

…

The storm had put everyone on edge a bit. Students that, like Kurt, usually went home at night were particularly frantic, asking friends if they could crash for the night and calling their family. Students who boarded at Dalton were mostly just worried they would not be able to make it across the courtyard to the dining hall. Every dormitory had its own kitchen, but they were nowhere near stocked up enough to satiate the growling stomachs of all their male occupants.

This unease seeped into their performance. People were off-key, off-beat, missed their cue, messed up on the choreography, and in general did everything possible to drive Wes nuts. The day got darker and darker as practice dragged on, the snow building along with Wes's temper. One boy who'd gone to the bathroom came back to inform them that the snow was now officially too deep to allow anybody to go outside. This solicited numerous groans and whines. They would be doomed to eat whatever was left in the building's kitchen, which no doubt consisted of instant noodles, a couple bananas, and canned beans. Yum.

Kurt was not so much stressed as he was tired. Blaine was the same. They dragged through the numbers with careless ease, not minding when somebody screwed up because, hey, somebody else was probably going to do the same thing in about ten seconds anyway.

And then, just to make everything worse, the lights went out.

Kurt, who was standing next to Blaine, subconsciously clutched the older boy's hand tightly in his, tensing up. A power-outage was really the last thing they needed at the moment. Many a gasp was emitted. Kurt waited for his eyes to adjust to the newfound darkness. The light coming from the windows was gray and feeble; it was enough to view his surroundings, but nothing bright enough to read with, which made their sheet music rather pointless.

"Great!" Wes ranted. "Perfect! This is just _brilliant_! Now we're stuck here for God-knows-how-long with no power and hardly any food and Sectionals are coming up and we _so_ don't have the time for-"

"Calm down, Wes," David advised soothingly, his deep voice cooling his friend's frustration. "There's a back-up generator in the attic, remember?"

Wes seemed to deflate. "Oh...Yes...I'd forgotten about that."

Thad spoke up. "Let's go, then! Where's the opening to the attic?"

"There's supposed to be one in every room..." David murmured, standing up from his seat and moving around the room carefully, head tilted all the way back as he examined the ceiling. The rest of the Warblers' heads were thrown back as well. Blaine squinted at the back corner of the room and noticed a string hanging down from one of the squares.

He got up. Kurt, who still had his hand in Blaine's and was not about to let go, followed. "Guys, I think it's over here," Blaine announced. Sure enough, when Jeff pushed a side-table into the corner and stood up on it to pull the string, the square swung down with the creaking sound of untended-to hinges.

"Great!" Thad smiled. "Now we just need somebody to go up there and find the generator and-"

"Thad." Wes looked like he was either about to slap Thad's forehead or his own. "Do you _see_ that opening? _None_ of us could fit through that!"

They all looked up at the hole. It was miniscule. Most of the guys would never be able to squeeze their way through that. _Well that's a stupid design_, Kurt thought to himself, frowning. _Who had the brilliant idea of making the attic inaccessible to anybody over the age of ten?_

"Well, actually..." Everybody turned to David, who was still looking at the gap thoughtfully. "There _is_ _somebody_ in the room with pretty small hips..."

And before Kurt realized what was going on, their eyes had fallen on him. He took an involuntary step back from them all. "Whoa, wait, _what_? No way! There's no chance in hell I'm going up there and getting my uniform all-"

"Kurt, what size pants do you wear?" Jeff asked.

"E-Excuse me?" he spluttered. "I'm not telling you th-"

He stopped with a squeak-gasp, caused by Blaine's unexpected hand on his ass. The black-haired soloist pulled the back hem of his pants to read the label. Kurt was paralyzed in shock.

Blaine snorted and let go. "Oh yeah...he'll definitely fit."

"Wonderful! Come on, Kurt," David invited, gesturing him forward.

Kurt turned to glare at his boyfriend and growled through his teeth, "You are _so_ lucky you're _dating_ that ass, Blaine Anderson..."

"Oh, and I know it!" he assured cheerfully. He placed his hand on the small of his back and guided him forward. "Now go on...Take one for the team!"

"But it's gross and dusty and rife with spiderwebs-" he complained, while still allowing himself to be led over to the table in the corner. Logan and Steve, their more muscular members, were already up there, ready to lift Kurt, seeing as how the group was ladder-less. Kurt sighed heavily, always the diva, and stripped off his jacket. His tie followed. He gave them both to Blaine. "You _owe_ me, mister."

"I'll buy you a new scarf to show my gratitude," Blaine laughed. Kurt gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before climbing up onto the table. Logan and Steve made a basket with their hands that Kurt stepped into. He silently thanked his days of being a Cheerio. At the count of three, they propelled him up, and he raised his hands artfully to catch the edges of the opening. His supports were both very tall; they were able to get him almost all the way in before he was too high for them to reach. His knees rested on the edge of the hole, which groaned ominously underneath the sudden weight. It had indeed been a tight squeeze, but he found his ability to get through something of a compliment.

"_EW_!" The squeal he emitted was nothing if not girly. He did not care though; it was absolutely _revolting_ up there. "Oh, this is _disgusting_!"

He reached down amidst titterings from his fellow Warblers and took the flashlight Steve held up to him.

"Do you see the generator?" David asked from below. Kurt, grimacing and trying very hard not to touch...well, _anything_...switched on the flashlight and pointed it in front of him. Bad move. The place was an absolute nightmare of filth. Kurt's pants were already covered in dirt, and his fingertips were as black as soot. Cobwebs were strung everywhere. He was pretty sure he spotted a couple dead rats a little ways away.

He did, however, notice the generator. It was about twenty feet to his left, a giant silver machine that looked like it hadn't been used in decades.

"I see it!" he announced, the grimace on his face audible in his voice. With a tiny groan, he moved towards it, crawling on his knees and using only his fingertips of one hand to try and decrease the amount of contact he had with the germ-infested area as much as humanly possible. The wood beneath him creaked and popped unnervingly with each move.

"How are you doing?" He heard Blaine's voice, sounding farther away than seemed probable.

Kurt got to the generator and shined the flashlight all over it. The knobs were foreign and confusing.

"What am I supposed to do?" he called back.

"There should be a switch that turns it on..." David's voice this time.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, there's about three _dozen_ switches!"

He heard someone curse from down below. There was a conversation that Kurt could not quite make out. "Jeff thinks it should be labeled!"

Kurt looked more closely at the buttons and switches, noticing that some of them were indeed labeled. He found a large one with 'POWER' on the side. He grabbed the handle and pushed it from 'off' to 'on.' It roared to life with such noise that Kurt literally squealed and moved backwards from it.

"I got it!" he shouted back. The hole now had light coming through from it.

"Great! Thanks so much, Kurt!" they all cheered. "Come back, now..."

He retraced his steps – _crawls_, really – eager to be out of the foul, repulsive atmosphere. Just as he was nearing the square of light, however, the wood beneath him gave an unruly CRACK.

And then there was no wood beneath him at all.

…

The Warblers all cheered upon the re-illumination of the room. Wes looked about ready to kiss the boy who 'saved their practice.' But of course he wouldn't, considering he was straight, and Kurt was _Blaine's_ boyfriend. Double no-no. Steve and Logan stepped back onto the table and got ready to help Kurt down. Over the animated chatter of the Warbler Hall, however, there was a sudden, gut-wrenching sound above their heads, an unnatural cracking. Blaine heart's gave a painful jolt, before stopping altogether. He knew what was happening a split second before it did.

The ceiling only a couple feet away from the opening...collapsed.

Kurt Hummel came tumbling down with a tremendous crash as wooden beams splintered. There were cries and shouts as dust, plaster, rotten wood, and Kurt all fell down upon them. Blaine lunged forward, literally flinging himself under Kurt before he hit the floor. The sudden weight made his knees buckle, and he too went down. He heard a sickening thud nearby and knew it was from bone meeting polished wood floors, and since he did not feel a searing pain on his own body, he knew it came from Kurt.

There had never been such a heavy silence in the Warbler Hall before.

"Kurt..." Blaine breathed. He sat up carefully, trying not to jostle the limp boy in his arms. His own shoulder was throbbing from the cruel contact with the floor, but he hardly even noticed. All his attention was on Kurt. His head was resting in Blaine's lap, eyes shut, lips parted, and he could have passed for sleeping. Almost. His dirt-covered chest was moving up and down, up and down, and Blaine practically cried with relief. He lightly brushed Kurt's hair away from his angelic face, no longer in its perfect coif.

"Oh my god..."

"Is he okay?"

"Someone call the nurse!"

"He's in the main building, idiot! He can't get here!"

"But he's not waking up!"

The frantic voices around them were ignored. Blaine leaned down close to his boyfriend and whispered, "Kurt...? Kurt, babe...Y-You need to wake up. Open your eyes, okay?" His voice broke. Everybody was watching them worriedly. Tears filled Blaine's eyes, and he sniffed, but he did not cry. Panic was rising quickly in his chest. "Kurt? Baby, _please_...Please wake up! I need you to wake up now..."

The countertenor remained immobile.

A single tear fell, landing on Kurt's pale cheek. Blaine bent down, pressing his lips to Kurt's soft, still ones, and more tears leaked out from behind his closed eyelids. _Come back to me. I need you, Kurt...I can't lose you._

"Please..."

…

**In the original version, Kurt woke up with retrograde amnesia. But there was just so much wrong with that version that I had to change it (read: cut it) for my own sanity. Go ahead and HAAATE ON ME, HATERS! ;)**

**Kisses,**

**~Ripple**


End file.
